Peculiar odours in newborns and maternal prenatal ingestion of spicy food

A peculiar odour in an infant may raise the possibility of several important syndromes. Four cases of newborn infants with peculiar smells are described. In two, the sharp odour was identified as cumin, one smelled of fenu-greek and one of curry. All these babies were born to mothers who ingested spicy food prior to delivery. In one case, the foul smelling amniotic fluid led to a spurious suspicion of amniotitis.